


Walking in A Winter Wonderland

by oneifby (orphan_account)



Series: Pine Trees and Flannel [2]
Category: Haven - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Summer Camp, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-27
Updated: 2013-03-27
Packaged: 2017-12-06 16:16:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/737649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/oneifby
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An epilogue to 'Welcome to Camp Haven'.<br/>Every camp story needs a happy ending.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Walking in A Winter Wonderland

Rowing (Epilogue) 

 

When Audrey woke up, the cabin was empty.

She was a light sleeper. Usually, the sound of birds chirping outside the window woke her up even before her alarm went off. But the birds weren’t there, and her cell phone was missing.

“Nathan,” she called. “Nathan, are you in here?”

Nothing. She sighed, and shivered. Snow had blanketed the pine trees while she slept. The camp grounds were covered in an untouched white coat, the first of the season. The sun shone off the snow--it was too bright for the flakes to last long, but soon there would be feet and feet of powder, bending the limbs of the trees, making car travel impossible, and silencing all the noises of the forest. Audrey loved walking on the fresh snow. But first, Nathan.

She pulled on her thick reindeer socks that Duke had gotten her for her last birthday, her boots, and a parka over her standard jeans and t-shirt. Then she pulled her arms back over her head and leaned far enough to crack her back. “ _Nathaaan_ ,” she called once more, for good measure.

 

Walking down the hallway in the lodge she tried again, “Chief?” No response. The dining halls and kitchen were untouched, as clean as they had been the night before. She even went back to Vince and Dave’s rooms and knocked on their doors. The place was deserted.

 

The world outside was pristine--completely untouched. The only sounds were her own steps, crunching the thin layer of snow. Once she had looked downstairs and gone far enough outside, she turned back to look again. The only tracks on the ground were her own, and the camp, dressed in white, gave no sign of anyone else ever having been there.

She swallowed uncomfortably. “I swear to god, if there’s a serial killer here playing games with me,” she said to herself, “I am going to have some _very_ stern words for him.”

 

By the time Audrey got to Dwight’s cabin, she was moving a bit more quickly. It had been a long walk, and she hadn’t seen anyone. Not Nathan, the Chief, Vince and Dave, or the corporate group that was renting out the place for a retreat. She rubbed her arms nervously as she knocked on the door.

“Dwight?” She pushed the door open slowly. A few dishes sat in the sink, rinsed and ready for washing. The fireplace had ash from a recent fire left inside, and the chairs were turned towards it for warmth. A sketch book with still lifes lay on the smaller bed. Some extra-large shirts were strewn about the larger one. The beds hadn’t been slept in.

Audrey looked for a phone or a connection and realized that Dwight came to the main lodge whenever he needed to do something like that. But his truck keys were missing from the sideboard.

 

“Oh god,” Audrey groaned to herself. “I’m going to have to walk all the way back to town and then I’m going to have to explain why I’m the only person who wasn’t struck by the _mysterious incident of the disappearing night time_.” She walked slowly down towards the lake and the bonfire, going through possible defenses for the inevitable court case when she caught a glimpse of a bright red pom-pom behind the boathouse. She began to run.

 

The first thing Audrey saw when she got there was the people. Everyone who had been missing and more were there--old campers, friends from high school and college. She couldn’t take it all in at once. They all stood dead silently, with expectant smiles on their faces. She went from person to person, trying to get everyone’s faces places when the crowd parted.

One of the boats from the boathouse was tied to the end of the dock, swaying back and forth in the water. The wooden dock had been swept clean of snow.

Next to the boat stood a proud and grinning Nathan in a black suit and skinny tie. He held a bunch of white lilies and had one hand in his pocket. Shifting his foot from one foot to another, he smiled as she approached slowly.

“You absolute idiot, Nathan Wuornos," she yelled. "This deserves an especially cruel and unusual punishment. Something that lasts for days. No, weeks. You had me scared out of my wits.”

“What, did you think we were in _trouble_?” Nathan grinned.

Audrey kneed him in the thigh. He grimaced.

“Ok, I give,” Audrey conceded, shaking her head. “How. How did you make this happen?”

“I called people who called people who got on planes and trains to be here. You’re a well loved girl, Audrey Parker. Even your former kids wanted to get involved. I had them stay in the kids cabins so you wouldn’t see them get in. Their cars are parked in the old lot, hidden behind the volleyball court, which I knew you wouldn’t check. Everyone got up early and crept down here before dawn. We had hot chocolate and breakfast to keep them happy. The snow was just an extra creepy bonus.”

“You are damn lucky it snowed or else I would have found you all in a heartbeat--I didn’t want to go down to the lake in the snow in case the serial killer was waiting for a showdown and I was too cold to do anything. It always happens near the lake. And the boat and the flowers?”

“I got Dwight to tie it up, after he insisted on making his bed, military style. The man is fastidious. And I took care of the special touches yesterday when you were leading that ‘ _Leadership Through Human Contact Class_ ’. Milady?” Nathan said, offering his hand and bowing. As she took Nathan’s hand, he lifted her gently into the boat. He leaned over, slipped the rope from its tie, and began to row.

“You weirdo,” she laughed. “Why didn’t you just tell me.”

“I thought it would be more fun this way,” he said. “Wasn’t it?”

“Of course it was." Audrey stopped and turned to him hesitantly, tucking the hair back from her face. "But what’s all the pomp and circumstance for?”

“You and Claire came here together for three years after that first summer," Nathan started. "Every year we tried to make a clean break, to not let us interfere with work, and with school.”

“Well, _I_ tried to make a clean break. You agreed until my car left the parking lot.”

“Semantics. Every year it failed. Even after you graduated, we couldn’t stay away from this place, and from each other. We went back and forth, back and forth. I have more frequent flyer miles than I know what to do with, and you have parking tickets from all the states in between.”

“If they could just mark the areas a bit more clearly, people would be able to _distingu_ -”

“Audrey,” Nathan said, silencing her. “I have loved you since the moment I bumped into you on your first day at Haven. I loved you then, and I love you know, and I have loved you every single moment in between. Even when you thought you couldn’t love me, that we wouldn't work, that we were a fling and nothing more. When I wake up and you’re not there, it feels like I’m lost in woods that I thought I knew like the back of my hand. I can remember what is what like before you, and with you, which only serves to make it all worse. It’s dark and unfamiliar and it doesn’t fit. I don’t fit. So please, never make me wake up without you again.”

He knelt down in the bottom of the boat and pulled a small box from his suit pocket. Audrey covered her mouth with her hand and gasped.

“Audrey Parker, will you marry me?”

“I-I...” Audrey paused, and looked down. “Yes.” Nathan beamed as she began to choke up. “I’m trying to think of something appropriate to say, but all that is going through my brain is, say yes, you idiot, say yes. I don’t waste another second without you going through life beside me.”

“I'll be there every step of the way,” he promised, sliding the ring on her finger.

“I’m just so happy, Nathan. You make me so happy, every day,” Audrey said. “I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you.” He took her in his arms and squeezed tightly, pressing his lips to hers. Her hand went to cup his face, then to run through the hair at the back of his head. His hand slipped under her clothes to rest in the small of her lower back, drawing tiny circles with his thumb. She flinched, and tugged on his tie.

“We’re gonna have to warm up those hands before you go any further, mister.”

 

The ‘campers’ and staff had gathered at the boat dock during the interlude. When Nathan turned and waved, still holding Audrey, they erupted in squeals and cheers. A red-haired woman jumped up and down, then turned and punched the long-haired man next to her in the arm.

“Is that Claire?!” Audrey yelled an unintelligible ‘ _Oh-my-god_ ’ back to the shore. Claire heard the noise and got the gist, if not the actual words. She began to wave enthusiastically. Duke raised an arm in acknowledgment.

“Yeah, when I told her and Duke about my plan,” Nathan said, “she insisted they come down. They had to drive--she’s pretty far along.”

“What if she had the baby here! Then they’d have to come back and visit us every year. It’s basically a rule,” Audrey declared.

Nathan smiled down at her. “That’s definitely true and there’s no way that you just made it up.”

“Those things are not mutually exclusive.”

The lake was cold and beautiful and as they rocked back and forth in the boat, they looked out at the trees blanketed all around them, a green and white paradise.

“I don’t think I want to go back quite yet. How do you feel about drifting for a while?”

“I feel _very_ good about it.”

“...”

“Mr. Parker. It's got a nice ring.”


End file.
